Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1887-07-14
NATURAL MONUMENTS.
Wild and Impressive scenes In the Mount
RIna M

Wild and Impressive Scenes In the Mounts
aims OF West Virginia.
UP here among the highest attitudes
OF West Virginia, on top of the anti
clinal ridges, $500 feet above the level
OF the sea, among the conglomerate
series. stand a number of stupendous
monuments or monoliths whose pecu-
liar features, preserved by their silici-
Gus character from the leveling power
OF atmospheric agencies, degradation
by water and erosion of time, to all APP
Pearances sound and perfect as when
in the carboniferous age the lands were
cast up in lateral folds. These impress
sive monuments are in some cases $50
feet high by several hundred in width;
their crowns are generally somewhat
concave in shape, the outer rim of the
bowl being in some Instances several
feet higher than its center. The most
peculiar feature, and one which has
been gazed upon by visitors with awe.
and is regarded by the native with that
degree of reverence only found among
a rural Christian people. is the fact that
in the center of each stone is a hole,
varying in size, but perfectly smooth
and regular in all. In one instan4niS
which will describe all. the hole atSsbie
surface is two feet in 6iamehe.', H.:
scending into the hard stone s'9Y 3rl.
feet, with regularity of size 4 lich
could not be made more perfect With
modern ingenuity and instru Irer IS.
Below the space begins to broadefrist
an ovoid shape until it has assrIn ed
fha Shona and form of tho inf of.
iong-necked bottle or that of a perfect
cone with long stem. At the bottom,
many feet below the mouth,
lies round stone of great
density. surrounded and often
covered with very fine sand. which
partakes of the nature of the rocky
walls about it. The belief and theory
of the natives and those visitors who
have gone many miles through these
almost painless wilds to see them is
that when this part of the world was
covered with water. many centuries
past, large rocks or stones of great
density had been carried by the flood
and deposited upon these stones, whose
concave crowns having created sort
of whirlpool by the resistance of the
outer walls OF rims, sent the denser
rocks in whirl and constant grind |
until they had worn themselves down
into the bosom of the larger stones. !
AS the depth increased II correspond |
ing resistance ensued, causing the re-
volving stones, by their increasing |
velocity, to grind further into the sides
of the walls, until they had worn them
into the shape above described.
Measurements were made by several !
visitors short time ago and the shape |
of each cavity was exactly the same in
form, only differing in size in proper
ton to the round dense stone lying at |
the bottom. In all instances the neck !
of the ovoid-shaped hole was the merest
tritie larger in diameter than the round
stone. Several efforts were made to
get one of the round stones out of its
resting place and to the surface, but
the attempts always failed.
These monuments of the birth of ma |
ture stand almost three thousand feet |
above the level of the lands of Ohio |
on the river of that NAME
PocahontaS ". YG.) Cor. NJ Y. World. |